ArticleNature communications2017
3D microniches reveal the importance of cell size and shape.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed, 185 citations in OpenAlex.
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- The Floor-Ceiling-Chip, or 2 × 2D = Pseudo-3D-Approaching 3D Cell Morphology and Organization between Two Opposing 2D Substrates with Cell-Adhesive Protein Micropatterns.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Article
- Multimodal mechanoregulation strategies towards tissue regeneration.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2025Review
- Confined Migration Drives Stem Cell Differentiation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Review
- 3D Mechanical Confinement Directs Muscle Stem Cell Fate and Function.Advanced biology · 2025Article
- Geometrically constrained cytoskeletal reorganisation modulates DNA nanostructures uptake.Journal of materials chemistry. B · 2025Article
- Tunable Bicontinuous Macroporous Cell Culture Scaffolds via Kinetically Controlled Phase Separation.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Review
- Fabrication of microcompartments with controlled size and shape for encapsulating active matter.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Article
- Hydrogel Elastic Energy: A Stressor Triggering an Adaptive Stress-Mediated Cell Response.Advanced healthcare materials · 2025Article
- 3D confinement alters smooth muscle cell responses to chemical and mechanical cues.APL bioengineering · 2024Article
- Mechanobiology of 3D cell confinement and extracellular crowding.Biophysical reviews · 2024Review
- 3D Micropatterned Traction Force Microscopy: A Technique to Control 3D Cell Shape While Measuring Cell-Substrate Force Transmission.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Advances in micropatterning technology for mechanotransduction research.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2024Review
- Spectrin mediates 3D-specific matrix stress-relaxation response in neural stem cell lineage commitment.Science advances · 2024Article
- The Role of Biophysical Factors in Organ Development: Insights from Current Organoid Models.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Functional meniscus reconstruction with biological and biomechanical heterogeneities through topological self-induction of stem cells.Bioactive materials · 2024Article
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Geometrical cues have been shown to alter gene expression and differentiation on 2D substrates. However, little is known about how geometrical cues affect cell function in 3D. One major reason for this lack of understanding is rooted in the difficulties of controlling cell geometry in a complex 3D setting and for long periods of culture. Here, we present a robust method to control cell volume and shape of individual human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) inside 3D microniches with a range of different geometries (e.g., cylinder, triangular prism, cubic, and cuboid). We find that the actin filaments, focal adhesions, nuclear shape, YAP/TAZ localization, cell contractility, nuclear accumulation of histone deacetylase 3, and lineage selection are all sensitive to cell volume. Our 3D microniches enable fundamental studies on the impact of biophysical cues on cell fate, and have potential applications in investigating how multicellular architectures organize within geometrically well-defined 3D spaces.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.